Onions is both a source of great flavour and healthy contents for our body. For quite allot of people the handling of these beautiful vegetables is a pain though due to the burning sensation they might cause on the eyes. So is there actually a way of stopping your eyes from burning while chopping onions? I though I’d put some time and effort in using ye old friend – Internet, so see if there is any ways out there which do the trick. For simplicity I collected a bunch and created a list of my findings for easy access.

Icy water – Start by filling a container with ice and cold water. Cut the onion in two parts and let both parts lay in the icy water for a few minutes and then do what you need to do with them.

Flowing water – Chop your onion next to the flowing stream of water from the water-tap.

Boiling water – Chop your onion next to the flowing stream of water steam from a pot of boiling water.

Freezer – Put the onion in the freezer for five or ten minutes and then take it out and cut directly.

Shaper knife – By using a sharper knife you minimze the cells being crushed when cutting the onion.

And of course for a last resort, put on your scuba-gear and cut that onion away like there was no tomorrow.

If you ever wondered why it is that the onions do irritate your eyes by the way it is due to the enzymes released when you collapse the cells of the onion. These enzymes react with the rest of the onion and release a gas that together with water becomes an acid. And due to the fact our eyes is watery, the gas when it reaches our eyes become acid and the eyes begin to get irritated. This is why a pair of swim-goggles or scuba-gear will prevent your eyes from burning.